As the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) intensify efforts towards the establishment of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), several of the professionals in the Regional State Sector who will interface directly with the Court will be focusing their minds on the issues relating to the Court during the first half of June.
The interface takes the form of two workshops. The first event, for the Windward Islands and Barbados will take place in St. Kitts and Nevis, 1-2 June 2002 while the other, for The Bahamas, Belize, Jamaica and Haiti and Jamaica, will take place in Jamaica, 13-14 June 2002. A previous workshop for the Leeward Island was held in Saint Lucia, in March 2002.
Coordinator in the CCJ Project Coordinating Unit at the CARICOM Secretariat, Mr. Sheldon Mc Donald, underscored the importance of the workshops, stressing that the identified persons form an important core that will represent the Member States' interest before the Court. In this regard, he believes that they must be exposed to the many issues involving the establishment and operation of the CCJ. He added that the workshop setting, which brings together participants from selected Member States allows for a wide level of involvement and cross fertilization of ideas and thoughts.
The Sectors from which the participants will be drawn are, the Attorney's- General Chambers, the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Judiciary- particularly the Magistracy and Quasi-Judicial and Administrative Tribunals. Other officials include Chief Immigration Officers, Senior Court Officials; Legal Officers in various Government Departments, Registrars of Companies and officials dealing with Land Acquisition.
While a number of issues have been identified for presentations and discussion at the workshops, four critical ones are: The Caribbean Court of Justice and the Anticipated Impact on the Development of Law and Policy of the Caribbean Community and its Member States; Judicial Tribunals of Regional Integration Groupings and other Dispute Settlement Mechanism in International Trade and International Economic Law; Regional Experience in Judicial Tribunals and Legal Education into the New Dispensation.
The CCJ Coordinating Unit has been successful in securing the participation of several leading legal personalities in an effort to lend their scholarship to the process. In St. Kitts and Nevis, participants will be joined by the Hon Chief Justice of Guyana, Carl Singh, S.C., and the principal of the Norman School of Law, Mr. Keith Sobion. In Jamaica, participants will hear from Mr. Rex McKay, Senior Counsel from Guyana; The Hon David Coore,O.J., Q.C., the former Attorney General of Jamaica and Mr. Keith Sobion. Presentations will also come from Mr Duke Pollard; Legal Consultant with the CARICOM Secretariat and Mr. Ivor Carryl, Programme Manager with the Single market Unit at the Secretariat.
The workshops form part of the programme of public education on the CCJ and comes at a time when the Preparatory Committee for the Establishment of the Court has set up a time-table for Inauguration which will be deliberated on by the Twenty-Third Meeting of Conference in July, in Georgetown, Guyana.
The fourth workshop, for representatives from Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago closes this first phase of the workshops. It will take place early in the third quarter of 2002. From there the programme will involve national workshops which will complement activities with the non-State sector.
